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I started toward the side. The walls seemed like much safer places than out in the middle of everything. But some scrawny, drugged-up looking creep fell into step behind me.
“Hey, you’re that rapist, ain’t you?”
Dammit, how did he know that?
“I saw you on the TV.”
&
nbsp; Oh.
I ignored him and carried on, no idea where I was going, just trying to get away from him, though there really was no going anywhere away. We were stuck in the same big pod together, a room full of thieves, drug dealers, real rapists, and probably even murderers.
“Hey.” He poked me directly in the center of the back.
I paused and glanced back.
He was grossly skinny and slimy, as if he didn’t bathe often. His dark hair was matted and long. I tried to keep from grimacing as he moved in closer.
“Pussy sure do feel better when it don’t want you in there, don’t it?” Then he cackled, showing off a mouth full of back rotting teeth and jabbed his elbow companionably at me.
“Eww.” This time, I couldn’t resist revealing the disgust that oozed off me. I winced, revolted, and turned my face aside to keep from looking at this sick bastard straight in the eye.
But, yeah, that offended him.
“Hey,” he roared, stepping up into my face, even though he was nearly a foot shorter than me. “Don’t you be acting like you’re better than me, you pretty, rich little fucker. We in a whole new world now, princess. And you’re just a pathetic little shit stain here.”
I blinked, wondering why he’d called me rich. No one had ever called me that before. While I was still pondering that one, the bald guy who’d been playing cards, threw down his entire hand and pushed to his feet, glaring our way.
“New boy giving you some trouble, Hopps?”
“Yeah,” the guy in my face sneered, blowing his putrid breath in my face and making me gag. “He’s fucking disrespecting me.”
“Yo, no one disrespects Hopps,” Bald-guy told me, nudging the tiny druggie aside so he could get into my face. He was considerably taller than Hopps. And wider too. Hell, he was considerably taller and wider than me.
His fellow card players from the table had risen as well and were gathering behind him, and yep, one was cracking his knuckles.
Dammit, not the knuckle cracking. I could almost feel my nose breaking already.
My shoulders fell. I didn’t bother to gush out an apology. It wasn’t because I was trying to be a brave idiot either. I would’ve babbled one out on my hands and knees if I’d thought it’d do any good. But I knew, just from looking into this guy’s eyes, they were going to kick my ass no matter what I said.
“Well…” he demanded. “You mute or what? Say something already.”
I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, the intercom beeped. “Hilliard,” a voice boomed overhead. “Approach the door.”
When no one in the entire pod reacted and the guy in my face didn’t move, I pointed toward the exit. “That…that’s me. I gotta go now.”
I slipped by him along the wall and then then jumped free to hurry toward the door. No one followed me, and my breath stuttered with relief. My eyes might’ve even started watering I was so grateful.
I didn’t even care what the guards had in mind for me; I’d been saved from an ass-beating. So life was good.
“What’s going on?” I asked as soon as they’d marched me a good thirty feet down the hall away from my pod. Were they taking me back to the infirmary? I could totally handle that.
“You got another hearing,” a guy I’d never met before announced.
I blinked. “I do?” Then I shook my head. “Are you sure? I didn’t think I had anything else for months to come.”
The guard only shrugged. “Your name’s on the docket.”
